Every time we go to Kalamazoo, we get sucked in by the breweries and bypass the thrift stores. Not this time. I looked up all the thrift stores in the area on Google Maps and clicked “avoid highways,” becasue that’s how we like to travel.

We started out at a Salvation Army Family Store where I scooped up a twin size vintage sheet, among a few other treasures. It’s fitted, so I’ll have to cut the elastic out of it before I can use the fabric. I knew it was old when I tugged on the elastic, and it crunched. Busted elastic may make other buyers shy away, but since I am just harvesting the fabric, I scored some serious yardage.

No maker label, but I suspect it’s from the 1970s.

I also found the most amazing vintage beach towel I have ever seen. I think I can make about six messenger bags out of the terry cloth. The sail boats absolutely kill me.

This towel has all the colors.Sail on!

I found another Salvation Army just down the road in Portage, MI. Judging from the photos online, this joint was massive. And it was. After perusing the neckties, I went through the “boudoir” section and headed for the linens. They had a ton of fabric that was sorted nicely, but none of it appealed to me. I’m very particular about the type of fabric I buy these days. Not by choice. I just don’t have any more space to store mediocre polyester. Make no mistake. I can always find a spot to squirrel away some premium fabrics.

The three racks behind the fabric had some awesome sheets and pillowcases. I turned up a Monticello by Cannon floral flat sheet and a few pillow cases made by Penn-Prest, Sears, and Springmaid.

Monticello by Cannon

I’m digging the orange butterfly on that yellow pillowcase.

It was right about this time that I saw a sheet pattern that I recognized. A while back, I bought a Cannon Royal Family Featherlite bed spread from the Kalamazoo Antiques Market for $8 that I planned to use for fabric. When I got home and discovered that while the sizing was for a full size mattress, it fit our queen size bed well enough and I decided not to cut it up. Today, a matching queen size flat sheet was hanging on the rack at the Sal. Coincidence or fate? I can’t wait to bust out this 1970s sheet/bedspread combo when the weather warms up.

The half-off color was yellow. I looked down at my findings and saw a few yellow tags, including the sheet that partially completes our springtime bed set. Yes. That’s the sugar.

We decided to test out a few Goodwill Stores, which as you might already know, can be hit or miss on vintage merchandise. Sometimes, I suspect there are people within the organization who don’t see any value in old clothing, fabric, or linens and cast it aside. But in reality, I have no idea what their sorting standards are like. We did find a few vintage neckties for $1.19 each at one Goodwill, while another location was a total bust.

The new vintage necktie lineup from various Kalamazoo area thrift stores.

My intuition was telling me that our luck was running out. There’s only so much gold you can dig up in one day. We decided to hit the NuWay Thrift Store on Cork Street as our last stop. The interior of the store is really dark, and the prices are fairly high. As a result, they have tons of stuff that appears as if it has been hanging around for a while. I am more than willing to dig through piles of clothing and fabric if I think I can come up with something for a good price, but this isn’t my first thrift store rodeo. I can sniff out a low-turnover hoard of mediocre goods in an instant. It wasn’t all bad. I managed to unearth two pieces of pretty cool polyester knit among the fabric. It was finally time to split and drink a celebratory beer at Bell’s Brewery.

It looks like wool, but it’s not. Polyester forever!If you look at it too long, the pattern will start to move.

You already know about Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday. This post is about Thrift Store Tuesday, which doesn’t just come around once a year. Good news, friends! You can take advantage of the Volunteers of America 50% off sale on the last Tuesday of every month. On a normal business day, the VoA thrift stores are brimming with bargains. However, this monthly sale has a special place in my heart. Ask anyone who knows me. I live for this stuff.

The grand plan was to hit three of the four grocery store-sized thrift stores in mid-Michigan. I’ll get you next time, Burton location. I decided to start in Corunna, a half-hour drive from Lansing. I arrived about 20 minutes before the store opened. The morning was just cold enough for steam to rise from the tailpipes of about 30 idling cars. I saw a few women milling about near the entrance, so I hopped out of the truck, walked over and sparked up a conversation. They immediately told me to knock of the door and get a number for a cart. I definitely would be needing a cart. I tapped on the glass door, and a nice woman passed me the number 31 written on a sticky note. The last time I dropped in on the Corunna store on half-off day, I arrived after the store was open and the cart inventory was wiped out. Of course, I hit the used merchandise lottery and was forced to drag three 25-lb. sacks of fabric around behind me with additional clothing items thrown over my shoulder. Like a beacon in the night, I spied an abandoned cart in the center aisle. I asked around to verify that no other shoppers had laid claim to the cart. I unburdened my load only to discover that the front wheel was seized, so I drove the cart around the store in pop-a-wheelie mode until it was time to check out. Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do.

I was so excited about starting this half-price Tuesday in Corunna. I consistently find giant plastic bags stuffed with vintage fabric, scads of ugly 1970s neckties and other various vintage items. This time, I found several two-tone vintage towels that I plan to upcycle. I also scooped up another grab bag mystery fabric, a few hideously ugly neckties and a couple vintage pillowcases. Normally, I resist the urge to peruse the bric-a-brac. But this time, the Christmas decorations sucked me in. I spied a lonely plastic popcorn donkey perched on top of a pile of decorations and I felt like he needed a good home. There’s nothing particularly Christmas-themed about him, but between the cashier and I, we deduced that he was most definitely a Christmas donkey. The grand total for a pile of vintage textiles, a giant bag stuffed with fabric, a few ugly neckties and a Christmas donkey came to a grand total of $13 and some change. Feeling triumphant, I threw the sack of goods over my shoulder and passed my cart off to another bargain shopper on my way out the door. It was time to head back into Lansing and see what the Saginaw Street store had waiting for me.

the crowd at 8:58 a.m.

linens galore in Corunna!

a grocery cart full of awesome

My new Christmas donkey

I rolled out of the small town of Corunna, drove past several farms, hooked a left on a two-lane road and jumped back on I-69. When I reached the Volunteers of America on the corner of Saginaw and Waverly, I discovered a jam-packed parking and people trolling the front of the lot for a good parking spot. I parked in the back of the lot and hiked in.

trolling for a parking spot

I wondered if any “good stuff” was left, but then I remembered that few people are looking for old textiles and ugly neckties. I headed straight for the necktie stash and snagged two clip-on ties. I used to pass on clip-on ties, but then I realized that the ends make great pockets. Plus, one of the ties had pheasants on it, so that was a no-brainer. This trip I was mostly staying on the periphery in order to avoid the frenzy I witnessed up and down the clothing aisles. However, I did pluck out two Joyce Sportswear polyester blazers that stood out from the pack. One was last worn on December of 1991 as evidenced by the unused $20 gift certificate for a now defunct East Lansing restaurant named Pistachio’s. I bet David and Denise would be devastated if they knew that Carolyn and Wally never enjoyed their free meal. I also found a new old stock maxi skirt from Woolco for 50 cents, which I’m pretty happy about. I did resist the magnetic pull of the bric-a-brac section. I just repeat to myself, “Stay out of the bricky section. Stay. Out.” I love you, bric-a-brac, but I can’t take any more of you into my home.

green striped blazer

red blazer

my 50-cent new old stock skirt

As I approached the long checkout line, I spied a dishwasher crammed between two other appliances. When we moved into our duplex in August, the landlord pointed to the decades-old dishwasher in our kitchen and said, “The dishwasher doesn’t work. And that’s just the way it is.” Well, this gently used dishwasher was $10.01 after the 50% discount, so I plan to install it later this week. And that’s just the way it’s going to be. The last place we lived in had a broken dishwasher in need of a new circuit board. On a half-off day at the Saginaw VoA about three years ago, I bought the exact model of dishwasher as the broken one for eight bucks. I harvested the circuit board I needed and passed off the rest of the appliance to a friend who turned it in for scrap. So the Saginaw Volunteers of America is truly my discount dishwasher headquarters. I stood in line chatting with other bargain hunters while occasionally popping over to look at the linens section. I found another vintage towel and a sheet set, which I threw over my cramped arm. I really don’t mind standing in a long line at the thrift store on half off day. I almost always end up talking to other people about the cool things they found and what they are going to do with them. Plus, the VoA really has their act together for these monthly events. That line moves. So don’t be discouraged by its length. You’ll be at the register and out the door in no time. The grand total at this location was $17 and change – including the dishwasher.

The third and final location I visited was the Cedar Street store at about 11 a.m. This location has few different rooms. I suggest you do not bypass the linens room. There are always a few gems hiding in there waiting to be discovered. After scooping up a couple things in the linens area, I hit the necktie rack over in the men’s section and found five excellent examples of tacky of 1970s neckwear. I scanned the other sections of the store and jumped in line. The grand total at the last stop was $6 and change. It was time to get some lunch and survey all my goods. I have big plans for a lot of this stuff, so check back at my Etsy shop to see what I made with all the great stuff I found.

I love me some color-coded clothing!This place is huge!Some of these neckties are in my stash now.VoA moved some serious merch today!

The cab of my truck was loaded down with merchandise and I was beginning to wonder where I was going to stash all my new finds. Every time I go on these second-hand sprees I find so many wonderful things it’s hard to leave anything behind. My left brain begs me to be selective, while my right brain whispers, “But you could make something really cool out of that!” The right side usually wins the argument and I return home with bags and bags of stuff. And that’s OK. Every time I buy something from the thrift store, I am keeping it from laying in a landfill. Plus, my money is going to help fellow humans. For more info about how the Volunteers of America make a positive impact on the communities we live in, click here. Makes me wish I would have splurged on some of that bric-a-brac. Maybe next time.

I cannot conclude this post without extending a great big thank you to all of the staff at the mid-Michigan Volunteers of America thrift stores – especially Amanda, who took time out of her day to show me around and allow me to take photos inside the stores. I had the time of my life! If you have never experienced the 50% off sale, or the VoA thrift stores in general, I suggest you head down to one and see what you can find! Please see the photos below to check out what else I found.

The tags from all the wonderful things I found. I also found the background fabric today.

Some fab fabric from the mystery sackI also found a few scraps of vintage upholstery fabric in that bag.

Picture yourself at the grocery store in the checkout line. You forgot your reusable bags. Again. It’s OK. Don’t beat yourself up. You’ll bring them next time. Instead of just chucking that paper bag into the recycling bin, you can make a pattern from it that you can reuse over and over. This is also an opportunity to upcycle some old clothing, towels, and linens. Using paper grocery bags for pattern paper is nothing new. My mom used this trick to make jams for my sister and me in the 1980s. I took off for Girl Scout camp one summer armed with about a dozen pairs of jams in varying patterns. Today, we’re going to make a simple cross body purse that can fit all your essentials.

front view

rear view

under flap and liner view

Materials list:

about ¾ of a yard of fabric of your choice. Denim and upholstery fabric work great

light fabric for the liner like and old pillow case or sheet

two strips of 44” long fabric. I’m using a necktie and corduroy for the lining, but it’s up to you

magnetic closure

light interfacing for the strap

¾ of a yard of heavier interfacing, fleece or felt to add structure to the body of the bag

contrasting thread

Let’s get started:

Open the paper grocery bag up by cutting down the sides so you have two halves. Then cut open the corners so the paper will lay flat. I placed some spools of thread on the corners to help it lay down. I wanted the finished bag to measure 16” across the bottom, 12” at the top, with a height of 10” so I added an inch to all these dimensions for seam allowance. Check out the trapezoid in the photo.

I wanted to add a little design element to the corners, so I measured 2” up the side and drew a straight line diagonally across the corner. Now I guess it’s a hexagon instead of a trapezoid if you want to get all geometric about it.

For the front flap, I drew a rectangle that was 12” across with a height of 6 ½.” Then I measured 2” from the bottom corners along the height and width and repeated the diagonal line across the corner to match the body of the bag. This should give you a width of 8” across the bottom.

The strap is pretty easy. The final cross body strap will be about 42.” So the pattern piece will be cut along a fold. Measure along the top of the grocery bag piece and mark off 22.” I had to borrow a bit of paper from the second half of the bag and tape it on to get the final length. Make your strap pattern 2 ½” wide and don’t forget to mark the fold on one end to remind you that this piece will be twice the length of the pattern when it’s time to cut the strap fabric.

Cut out your three pattern pieces from the paper bag and select your fabric. I made mine with different pieces of fabric because it’s kind of a thing with me. Here is your cut list:

Body of bag: Cut two pieces for the exterior, two for the lining and two pieces of interfacing.

Front flap: Cut two pieces for the flap and two pieces of interfacing.

Strap: One piece for the outside of the strap and another for the lining. I suggest corduroy of something that will be comfortable on your neck. Also, you will need two pieces of light interfacing. Make sure it’s pliable because you will need to turn the whole length of the strap inside out.

I like to use vintage neckties for the strap fabric, so I will show you how I do that. First, take out the seam with a seam ripper and remove the guts of the tie. If you have a cool tie tag, you might want to keep it and sew it to the strap because it looks cool. I had no tie tag, so I omitted this step. If you want, you can hand wash the material and let it dry. Now press the fabric out with an iron on a lower setting. Be careful you don’t scorch the fabric. I’ve melted some Dacron Polyester with my iron, so use care and don’t become a statistic.

I cut the bottom of the tie off so I can use it as a pocket on another project. Pin the pattern to the material on the fold and cut. Repeat with the liner fabric. I’m using purple corduroy for the lining. I also used some lighter fusible interfacing on each side of the strap.

pinning the tie material to the pattern

liner and tie strip cut to 44″

Back to the body of the purse:

Fuse or sew the interfacing onto all of your flap, strap and body pieces.

Stitch the flap and body pieces together leaving the top of the flap and body open. For the strap, stitch on both sides. To make it a bit easier, sew both sides in the same direction on the machine to avoid the material pulling in two directions. Trim the excess fabric from around the seams and on both sides of the strap leaving about ¼.” This will help everything look nice when you flip the pieces right side out.

pieces sewn together and trimmed. The bottom of the body panel wasn’t perfectly straight, so I fixed it before trimming.

The liner is a bit different. Sew it just like the body pieces, but leave about 4” open on the bottom and back stich on either side of the opening. In one of the final steps, we’re going to pull the whole purse out through this hole, so don’t forget to leave the opening. Sometimes, in my haste, I forget and sew the whole thing closed. You may find it helpful to place pins sideways to remind you to stop sewing for about 4” along the bottom.

Flip the body, flap and strap pieces right side out and press.

It even looks like a purse now!

This next step is optional, but I think it looks nice. Top stitch along the sides of the strap and the edge of the front flap. I chose a green thread for this. The color is called “cilantro.” Yes, I did buy this thread because the color was called cilantro.

Fold the front flap in half vertically and mark a dot with a pencil on the underside. Place one side of your magnetic closure on the dot and put two more marks where the prongs sit. Reach inside the flap between the layers of interfacing and cut two ¼” slits with a seam ripper. Insert the magnetic closure prongs through those slits and place the retainer piece on the prongs and push them over with your thumb. That was easier that you thought, right? Save the other half of the closure for later.

half of the magnetic closure installed

Now set your machine to a longer stitch and attach the flap to the body, placing the top against the back of the bag. Place the strap on the sides with the top of the strap against the outside of the bag. It should look like this:

Did you mess it up? It’s OK. That’s why I use a longer stitch. Often, I have to remove this seam and move the flap or strap around to get it just right and the longer stitch makes this easier.

So here is where it gets tricky. Time to flex your spatial thinking skills. Tuck the whole bag into the liner, keeping the flap folded back and the strap folded against the body of the bag. Refer to the photo.

Turn the stich length back down on the machine and sew the lining to the body of the bag. Remember that hole we left in the lining?

Pull the whole bag through that hole and check to make sure the liner is stitched securely to the body, then tuck it into the bag. Does it look OK? I hope so. We’re almost done.

after pulling the bag through the hole

Top stitch along the top of the body to keep the liner tucked inside neatly. Now it’s time for the other half of that magnetic closure. I put the two pieces of the closure together and mark where the prongs sit on the body with a pencil. Reach up through the hole in the liner to hold the fabric, and make two more ¼” slits with your seam ripper. Put the prongs through, place the retainer over the prongs and push the tabs over. Now you can sew that liner hole shut.

top stitching the liner down to the body

marking where the prongs go

cutting two slits for the prongs

retainer in place with tabs pushed over

sewing the liner hole shut

You’re done! Now you have an upcycled purse you can throw a few essentials in and take off to the grocery store. Who knows, maybe this is just the thing you need to remind you to snatch the reusable bags from the trunk of your car before you head inside. Think of it as a sort of upcycled “string around your finger.”

Donezo!

Thanks for reading and following my blog! If you have any questions or suggestions about how to make this pattern better, leave me a comment! I love comments!

I rarely make something for the first time and end up with perfect results, and this 18-inch quilted pillow is certainly no exception. I have a ton of vintage fabric and decided to make a large quilted pillow for my couch because you can never have too many throw pillows. I am a largely self-taught sewist, so if any of you pros out there have some suggestions, leave me a comment!

To make the pattern, I cut a flap off the top of a box of beer and found it was four inches wide. I cut it into a four-inch square and decided that if I made the pillow five squares tall and five square wide, I would end up with dimensions of 20 inches by 20 inches before any seam allowance.

I randomly picked 25 different patterns of polyester knit fabric and tried to cut the 25 squares with expert precision.

After arranging the squares just how I wanted them, I sewed them together in strips of five with a ¼ inch seam allowance.

To join the strips together, I pushed the seams in opposite directions and sewed the strips together.

I decided to use some fusible interfacing to back the both sides of the pillow. This is where it all went wrong. Instead of putting the interfacing on the back of the quilted piece after I sewed it all together, I should have bonded the interfacing to each individual square. Since I was working with polyester knit, it stretched in different directions and all my squares looked crooked. So much for my super-duper straight squares.

I decided to try and straighten the mess by top-stitching on either side of the seam and pulling the squares back into position as I went. It helped a bit, but black thread was probably not the best choice. Next time, I’ll go with something that blends a bit better. Still, it’s not a complete throw-away.

After the top stitch. Meh.

For the backing, I chose some vintage bark cloth and backed it with the interfacing as well. I dug up an 18-inch zipper to install along the bottom. I basically stink at installing zippers. I’m more of a snap and button person. I cannot figure out the zipper foot that came with my machine to save my life, so I winged it with the regular foot. However, for my skill level, I think it turned out OK.

After the zipper was in place, I sewed the backing to the front and trimmed the inside corners so that when the pillow is right side out, they will be pointy instead of the fabric bunching up in the inside of the corner. Here is the end result:

Did it turn out to be 18 inches? No. It’s about 17 ½, but when I stuffed an 18-inch pillow insert into the cover, it plumped out nicely. So the first run was not terrible, and I would definitely make more of these in different sizes.

I decided to take a short break from gathering more supplies and turn out some new stuff. It was a short break, because I feel like I need to get as much second hand shopping in as possible before winter sets in. Here’s what I came up with last week:

I combined all the different bark cloth and vintage linen I had and came up with this beauty. The San Diego Transit patch on the front flap sort of matches the vintage Wembley necktie I used for the strap and interior pocket, but that’s where the matching stops. My friend said the pattern on the front looked like Brussels sprouts. I’ll take that as a compliment.

I made a bag a couple weeks ago with a flower pattern made from vintage buttons on the front flap. It sold almost immediately, so using buttons as embellishments is my new jam. Pink and green floral patterns rule this bag. Recognize that fern pattern on the sheet I used for the liner? I think everyone had a set of these sheets at some point. My mom sure did.

I went with a secondary colors scheme on this one. First, I found that tan, green and purple fabric at the Salvation Army. It was also half price, so that was a bonus. The very next day, I found the vintage chenille band letter from 1939 in an antiques mall. I knew immediately that I had to combine these two elements with some matching fabric. Here is the end result.

I recently made a red, white, and blue bag that featured a vintage towel for the front flap and it was big hit. So I decided to follow it up with another bag with a patriotic color scheme. I had this sweet clip-on tie that I decided to use the bottom of it for the front pocket. It had a small flaw on the lower left, but hey, the awesome pattern makes up for all that. The top of the pocket is red corduroy and has a black pearl snap closure.

But the cherry on top of this bag is the new old stock bowling patch from the bicentennial. I believe all the fabric is from around 1976. There seems to be abundance of red, white, and blue polyester out there on the second hand market. I suspect there are tons more hiding in closets waiting to be made into something. I’ll be looking for it.

I make a lot of bags with really loud colors. It’s kind of a thing. On this one, I tried to tone it down a bit. Just a bit though. The front is made from a vintage towel. I’m trying to find more vintage towels and do the same kind of thing. It really puzzles me why they don’t make towels like this anymore. I guess they went away just like colored bathroom fixtures. Now we live in a land where all the toilets are white.

The tie I used for the strap is really interesting. I bought a ton of vintage ties from Northern Scout Vintage on Etsy and this is one of them. There is a thunderstorm complete with lightning bolts over a cityscape printed on the tie. Bonus points if you can tell me which city this might be because I have no idea.

For the rest of the fabric, I combined neutral tones such as the vintage 1950s bark cloth on the back and the USMC camo fabric for the liner with yellow fabric for the side of the gusset and under the front flap.

Thanks for swinging by my blog and checking it out! If you have any ideas about color schemes or just sewing in general, leave me a comment. I would love to hear from you.

I nearly forgot about the annual rummage sale at the Plymouth Congregational Church in Lansing. However, I just happened to have the day off and just happened to be in the area around 9 a.m. when the doors opened.

The only occasion I will stand in a line to get my hands on retail goods is when those goods are second-hand. I stood in line outside the recreation hall with about 40 other folks who showed up with empty boxes and bags to fill with used merchandise. I even saw a guy with his own wheeled cart. That dude meant business. I chatted with a lady in line while trying to conceal my excitement. I didn’t want her to discover that I was a total freak when it came to vintage merchandise. I sized up the scene and I was fairly confident that very few of the people who were standing in that line were looking for the same kind of stuff I was. While I was searching out an estate sale on Craigslist to hit after the rummage sale, the line began to move and we all entered the building in and orderly fashion to begin the hunt.

One woman working the sale told me that it took more than a week to price and organize everything. The people working this sale really had it together. The merchandise was priced to move and the nice ladies at the linens table bagged up my selections and wrote my name on the bag so I could continue to shop unencumbered by a giant sack of linens. Check out the photos below to see what else I found:

A cool scarf for 40 cents? Yes please!A nice tea towel with 3-D embroideryA handy guide about where to use certain colors in your homeNice aluminum tray to stack junk on. I figured it was probably worth two dollars in scrap metal alone.Nice insulated cup set with serving trayNew old stock Luster Dry apron and towel set.

Cute casual place mats. I’ll probably reuse the fabric on another projectHand-sewn swans. I think the lipstick stain on this handkerchief is kinda cool.Is that quilt hand-sewn?Why yes it is!I don’t really know what these are, but they’re hand made and they were 25 cents.When you see a table-top gold lamé ironing board for 50 cents. Don’t ask questions. Just dig around in your pocket for two quarters.

After staggering out to my truck loaded down with vintage merchandise, I hit the navigation on my phone to find that estate sale. There’s really no other way to do estate sales in my opinion. Gone are the days of driving around aimlessly searching for signage. No more slamming on the brakes and taking turns at 30 miles per hour when you see a sign the reads “yard sale” or “estate sale” with an arrow pointing the way. Plus, I don’t have the added annoyance of twisting my way through a neighborhood only to discover that the sale was the previous week and nobody bothered to take the signs down.

Luck was on my side again at the estate sale. Everything was half price and there was still plenty of cool stuff that shoppers the day before had passed by. I noticed that an old Singer sewing machine was featured in the Craigslist post, so I knew there was bound to be some vintage fabric. I gasped when I saw the coolest quilt in the world laying across the bed. It was pieced together with vintage bark cloth and was probably made about 50 years ago. I suspected that it may be out of my price range because it was so glorious. I did a double take when I saw the sticker. It was marked $10 which meant I got it for $5. I snatched it up as if someone was else was going for it at the same time. A lady sitting at a card table with a money box told me I could put it on the table next to her. Not a chance. I wasn’t letting this thing out of my sight. I tucked it up under my arm and continued to search the other bedrooms. I found some super thick cheap denim fabric, which is good because I was just about out of cheap denim. I also scooped up a few yards of bright red polyester knit, a souvenir plate from the Grand Canyon and a blue ashtray from a California-based restaurant named Fjord’s Smorg-ette, which I discovered was recently torn down to make way for an In-N-Out Burger. I paid nine bucks for all my goods and almost ran out of the house. I imagined that someone would stop me and told me they made a pricing mistake on the quilt. Once safely down the street at my truck, I draped the quilt across the tailgate and snapped a photo so I could show it off on Facebook. I hope that when I’m no longer part of this earth and they sell all my junk off, someone finds something they will treasure.

half of the quiltdetail of the quiltI don’t smoke, but I like blue glass.I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, but now I can pretend that I have.Sweet 50-cent table runner50-cent fabric!

I was on a roll. I had a few bucks left, so I swung into the Volunteers of America thrift store. This joint always delivers. I seldom go to the VoA without finding some great vintage fabric and/or ugly 1970s neckties and this day was no exception. I was already running dangerously low on my favorite brown and yellow bark cloth. The thrift store gods must have known that, because I found some serious yardage of a fantastic purple bark cloth from the 1950s stuffed into a bag with some other less desirable shimmery synthetic fabric from the 1990s. I also scooped up a couple sweet neckties. One sported a pink tag which meant it was 75% off, which is always nice. I strolled on up to the checkout where the nice lady who rung me up asked, “How are you today?” I cheerfully answered, “I’m super!” Because I was. It was another victorious day of mining Lansing’s second-hand scene for vintage gems.

detail shot of my new favorite fabric. Look for it to appear on a messenger bag in my shop!Green shark skin tie and a brown striped tie that I bought just because the tie tag was so cool.

I don’t know about you, but when I travel, I start scoping out the thrift store scene as soon as I roll into town. Huntsville, Alabama and Johnson City, Tennessee had the goods on some super wide vintage neckties. The Thrift Mart in Huntsville had one of the biggest tie collections I have ever seen in my life and it was teeming with tacky neck wear. I also picked up a few choice vintage ties at the Salvation Army Family Store and the Downtown Rescue Mission Thrift.

Prince Consort was really using his noodle when he added that built in tie clasp. Brilliant!

I believe Pablo would approve.

When we reached Johnson City, the Salvation Army Family Store had such an abundance of ties that many of them had been tossed into a bin on the floor. I sifted through the tangled mess of polyester and silk and came up with several vintage prizes I believe belonged to one man. I love trying to figure out if a collection of items in a thrift store all came from one person. As evidenced by the couple of clip-on ties and a few more that had been left tied in a Windsor knot, I concluded that all of my new Wembly gems belonged to the same dude. I built a picture in my head of bachelor who is either lazy or doesn’t know how to tie a tie. In either case, the manager seemed thrilled that I had taken some ties off her hands. She didn’t even count them. She just asked me, “How many?” and quickly took my money.

Oooh. It must be shark week

I already have hundreds of neckties that I use when making pockets and straps for my messenger bags, but that won’t stop me. They’re usually about a buck, don’t take up much space in my sewing area and the dazzling array of colors and patterns I find continually blow my mind. I dive into a rack and, pop my head up and yell at Rad, “Ooooh. Look at this one!”

100% polyester. Accept no substitutes.

Once I was in a Goodwill and couldn’t find the men’s necktie section. Somebody came out from the sorting room and told me that they had “sent them all back” because they were under the impression that nobody wanted to purchase a bunch of ugly old polyester neckties. Never say never sorting room people. There are folks like me out there who have a significant, but manageable hoarding problem. Here are some more photos of what I scored in Tennessee and Alabama. Be on the lookout for them to appear as an accent to a messenger bag in my Etsy shop:

“International” polyester? The Sal should have charged more for this one.

As we took off down the road from Fayetteville, TN a rainbow materialized across the highway. I took this as a sign of good luck for the I-127 Corridor Sale that runs from Alabama to Michigan for four days every August. We drove toward Chattanooga where we would follow the road north. I knew we were close to the action when traffic slowed to a crawl. We have a yard sale strategy we call “stick and move.” My husband, Rad, will drive by at a creep, while I scope out the scene. If I see some premium junk, we find place to stash the F-150, hop out and survey the scene. There’s a lot to see and I was looking for fabric, old neckties and vintage sewing notions.

the good luck rainbow

After seeing things like deer heads hanging from a telephone poll, cow skulls, an old hippie and tons of rusty bikes, we decided to ease on down the road and search for something to eat. There weren’t many restaurants on this leg of the trail, but we stumbled upon the Lone Oak community center and volunteer fire department combined into one building. And they had chili dogs and sweet tea. A woman played the piano in the large dining area, plus she was taking requests. We passed through the industrial kitchen, scored some hot dogs, corn bread and tea before someone informed us that there was also a book and quilt sale down the hall.

hot dog with chips and tea

The Lone Oak hot dog mess hall

just a pile of cow skulls

animal heads on a telephone poll

a tree that is ready for Halloween

rusty bikes for all ages

just in case you’re in the market for an animal hide

I found a Bargello book for a quarter before passing into the quilt room. A woman sat at a table and asked me if I wanted to purchase a raffle ticket for a huge quilt that hung from the ceiling. I explained that I lived in Michigan so I had no way of picking up the quilt if I were to win the raffle. “Well, we’ll mail it to ya!” she said. Who can argue with that? Wish me luck. I also scored some sweet high-quality corduroy for two bucks a yard. The woman who sold me that raffle ticket measured it out by stretching the material from her nose to her finger tips and I walked out with a sack stuffed full of good quality fabric for about ten bucks.

swatches of corduroy

We plugged on up the road without much luck after that. Second-hand fire arms and rebel flags began to dominate the stops we rode past, and since I am certainly not in the market for those items, we cut over to Nashville and began a new quest for craft beer and fried chicken.